wangari maathai primary sources
Wangari’s family was Kikuyu, a collective ethnic group in Kenya. Most importantly, the project provides much needed income for women in rural communities, some of whom can hardly read or write. Peace tree planting is another of the innovative projects introduced in the 1990s. The Nineteenth Century In 1977 Maathai left her professor position at the University of Nairobi and founded the Green Belt Movement on World Environment Day by planting nine trees in her backyard. Her family was of Kikuyu origin, and her father was polygamous. Many Africans will have to change their mind-set and treat men who abuse women and children as law-breakers. . http://www.gbmna.org/a.php?id=109 (accessed on August 23, 2005). 2021
. Wangari Maathai founded the global Green Belt Movement, which has contributed today to the planting of over 52 million trees. Most of the people involved with GBM are rural African women who, over the years, have planted nearly thirty million trees. Because of constitutional restrictions, Moi was now allowed run for another presidential term in the December 2002 elections. . Like many women in lesser developed countries, Kenyan women were also struggling with their daily lives: tending the fields without access to running water or sanitation and walking for miles in search of firewood, a situation which has been worsened by deforestation. For my other primary resources I used interviews of Wangari Maathai and the speech that she made when she received the Nobel Peace Prize. In the early 1980s, the Green Belt Movement focused on training its members to conserve the environment in order to improve the quality of their agricultural produce in order to alleviate hunger. With support from the National Council of Women, Maathai created programs aimed at educating Kenyan women in areas such as family planning, nutrition, and leadership development. What started as primarily a women’s grass-root organization to preserve the soil and the environment is today generating income for some 80,000 people, with more than 5,000 nurseries throughout Kenya and more than 20 million trees. Moi left office in December of 2002, after a constitutional ban prevented him from seeking reelection. "Maathai, Wangari Maathai was imprisoned several times in the 1980s for criticizing Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi and for demanding multi-party elections in Kenya. "Women's One World, Women Who Dare: Celebrating Women's Her-story, " World Citizen News, (February/March 1997) www.worldcitizen.org/issues/febmar97/womens.html. Speech. Many poor governments take on huge loans usually geared for specific projects, but oftentimes because of mismanagement and embezzlement the projects are not completed and the citizens are shortchanged. ", Wangari Muta Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya. Wangari Maathai’s Emplaced Rhetoric: Greening Global Peacebuilding Ellen W. Gorsevski This article offers new insights into how Wangari Maathai’s rhetoric of emplacement may be productively understood as a growing form of postcolonial communication, which is amenable to criticism and theory-building in rhetorical studies. Maathai was defeated in her 2007 reelection bid for Parliament but continued to be an environmental and political activist. Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s foremost environmentalist and women’s rights advocate, founded the Green Belt Movement on Earth Day 1977, encouraging farmers (70 percent of whom are women) to plant “greenbelts” to stop soil erosion, provide shade, and create a source of lumber and firewood. Wangari Maathai The Nobel Peace Prize 2004 The content is mainly a biography of Wangari Maathai and what she did to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. Retrieved March 19, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/general/culture-magazines/maathai-wangari. Under constant threats so serious that for a time she was forced to go into hiding, she has never given up her cause. She advocated for the release of political prisoners and led a hunger strike on 1992 with the mothers of these prisoners. In 2004 Maathai was honored with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, named after Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896). Timeline. Mother Earth News (April–May 2005): pp. Wangari Muta Maathai was born on April 1, 1940, in Nyeri, Kenya, in the foothills of Mount Kenya. She warned that educated women should avoid becoming an elite, and instead, should do work for the planet. Only then do we have hope.". "Wangari Maathai-Nobel Lecture." In 1997 Maathai responded to pressure from supporters and friends and announced that she was running not only for a Parliament seat, but for the Presidency under the Liberal Party of Kenya (LPK) in an attempt to defeat President Moi. In 1977, she … When rivers dry … Maathai was elected a member of parliament and appointed Deputy Minister of the Environment, Natural Resources, and Wildlife. Encyclopedia.com. The Green Belt Movement’s mission is “to raise community consciousness on self determination, equity, improved livelihood securities and environmental conservation using trees as an entry point.” Thanks largely to the efforts of both the GBM and the NCWK, women learn to communicate assertively, change their environment, improve their lives, set goals, and make their own decisions. . Maathai was best known as the founder of the Green Belt Movement (GBM), an initiative to plant trees in forested areas of Kenya that were being stripped for commercial expansion. ... Wangari Maathai is important to African women because she gives them hope. In 2002, Maathai was elected to the Kenyan Parliament on the National Rainbow Coalition ticket. By: Wangari Maathai. Maathai's future plans include another worthy cause: she hopes to establish a center to house battered women and children. The Greenbelt Movement that Maathai conceived was not limited solely to tree planting. Retrieved March 19, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/maathai-wangari-1940. O Magazine (May 12, 2005). Now as she serves as a lawmaker, she is in a good position to support or enact laws that will protect women’s rights as human rights. As a result they have reaped the rewards of food, fuel, shelter, and employment. In 1997 she agreed to run both for the presidency under the Liberal Party of Kenya (LPK) and for a seat in the National Assembly. The movement paid the women for each tree planted that lived past three months. Unfortunately, most of the accolades Maathai has received internationally have not contributed to the Movement’s financial base. Maathai was working with the National Council of Women of Kenya when she began to explore the idea that village women could improve the environment by planting trees. Maathai countered such fears by claiming that her leadership would focus not only on the environment (which was, in her mind, tied to other issues like hunger), but on infrastructure issues, poverty, disease, and the empowerment of the oppressed. The award is given annually by the Nobel Committee to individuals or organizations that work to promote peace, resolve conflict, or uphold human rights. Awards: Woman of the Year Award, 1983; Better World Society Award, 1986; Windstar Award for the Environment, 1988; Woman of the Year Award, 1989; Woman of the World, 1989; Honorary Doctor of She would later become head of the veterinary medicine faculty, the first woman in that capacity at any department at that university. "Africa Prize Laureates, Professor Wangari Muta Maathai, " The Hunger Project,www.thp.org/thp/prize/maathai/maathai.htm. Time (April 18, 2005): p. 98. Participants from other countries are taught to embrace the movement’s vision and mission, and then concentrate on establishing similar tree planting initiatives in their own countries by using the Green Belt method. In Currents Magazine she reflects that “Despite continuing and constant opposition, the movement grows and expands. In the 1960s the African continent was going through major political changes as the colonial powers were replaced by independence and black rule. ." In January of 1992 she was arrested for her political protest activities when more than 100 police raided her Nairobi residence. In 2005 a primary goal of Maathai was to extend the resources of the Green Belt Movement to help other areas of the world, such as the Republic of Haiti, which has also been ravaged by deforestation. Wangari Maathai was the first woman in Central and East Africa to earn a Ph.D., but she learned the ways of the world by planting trees. She gives these women hope and courage that they can break free, that … Time, April 23, 1990; April 29, 1991; April 27, 1992. April Mcilwaine. from University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. from Mount St. Scholastica University, in Kansas and a M.S. In January of 1999, Wangari was hospitalized for a head wound and concussion she suffered during a government-arranged attack while she and some supporters were planting trees in the Karura Public Forest in Nairobi. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. Environmental Issues: Essential Primary Sources , edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner, Gale, 2006, pp. She traveled to the United States to attend Mount St. Scholastica College, in Atchison, Kansas, earning a BA in 1964; the following year she earned a MA from the University of Pittsburgh. 2021 . Maathai excelled at mobilizing people for a very simple goal-reforestation-which also impacted poverty and community development in Kenya. Instead, they are provided with a rewarding experience that also enhances their self-esteem. Six thousand tree nurseries were created and operated by women, and jobs were provided for more than one hundred thousand people. ." Education: Mount St. Scholastica College, Atchison, Kansas, BA, 1964; University of Pittsburgh, MA, 1965; University of Nairobi, PhD. Ebony (March 2005): p. 22–24. Throughout Africa, Maathai noted, women are the primary caretakers tilling the land to feed their families, and are therefore often the first to become aware of environmental damage and shrinking resources. 19 Mar. The Greenbelt Movement.www.greenbeltmovement.org (accessed on August 23, 2005). And what a difference she has made. Her books include the memoir Unbowed and Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World.She’s also one of the 100 heroic women featured in the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. In 2001, the Green Belt Movement filed suit to prevent a forest clearance project by the Kenya government that included a plan to clear 69,000 hectares of woodland to house homeless squatters. Attending college in the United States, she went on to earn a B.S. She broke free of the traditional ways of women being beaten for not “obeying” their husbands. Maathai continued to oppose modernization that collided with her environmental beliefs; this often put her at odds with the government. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone!